Gov. Bill Ritter’s heart is in the right place on protecting Colorado’s 4.1 million acres of roadless public forests. But for the moment – and it could be a very long moment – he’s little more than a bystander in the lengthy battle over 59 million roadless acres nationwide.

Last month Ritter wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, requesting some tightening up of a roadless area protection plan sent to Washington last November by then-Gov. Bill Owens.

Owens’ proposal basically incorporated the recommendations of the broad-based Colorado Roadless Area Review Task Force, which sought protection of most roadless national forest lands. It was a sound process, based on extensive study and public comment.

The USDA oversees the Forest Service and Ritter asked for some improvements in the plan, including additional road restrictions in some western Colorado coal-mining areas, guaranteed involvement in the process for state agencies and, most importantly, a guarantee that roadless areas would be protected while government review was underway.

Colorado’s roadless areas are scores of parcels, primarily in the northern and central Rockies and in the San Juan Mountains. Some environmental groups have been concerned about lack of adequate protection of some individual parcels, including in coal-mining areas near Paonia.

Ritter’s plan has been criticized by some environmental groups, but it is basically sound. The Owens and Ritter proposals followed the direction of a 2005 federal policy that gave individual states the responsibility to develop roadless plans for federal review. But, that process is on ice because of federal court action.

About a third of all national forest land in the lower 48 states is roadless. During its waning days in 2001, the Clinton administration issued a broad protection rule that was quickly overturned by the Bush administration and replaced by a leave-it-to-the-states policy.

In February, a federal judge in California tossed out the Bush plan and reinstated, for now, the Clinton protections. The government and the timber industry have appealed that ruling. So, the real roadless battle is setting up in federal appeals court in San Francisco, which has yet to schedule further proceedings.

Roadless areas in our public lands are vital for protection of wildlife habitat, watersheds, scenic and other natural values.

Unfortunately, government, industry, environmentalists and sportsmen have been debating the status of these areas since the 1970s. While the issue is pending in court, it probably will be up to Congress and the next administration to finally give the nation a sensible policy for protecting roadless areas in Colorado and across the country.